Question

In November, 2006, Beatrice Vance of Chicago, Illinois started to experience chest pains. She eventually found herself at the closest emergency room. Hours later, Mrs. Vance passed away from what was ruled a heart attack. The coroner stated that the length of wait within the emergency room was a contributing factor in her death because she died of congestive heart failure – the heart’s inability to pump the required amount of blood due to a weakened muscle. At 10:15 PM, she was already checked in and approached the triage nurse to report a worsening condition – she was summarily told to wait her turn. At 12:25 AM, she collapsed and died (Tang, 2010).

            In the above scenario, not only was the hospital administrator held liable, so was the chief information officer (CIO). The argument for the CIO’s fault, in this case, was the fact that the emergency room failed to establish a health information system that would have provided care to Mrs. Vance in a timely fashion. Today, the average wait time in the emergency room is a little over 2 hours.

In the Beatrice Vance case, it was found that both the CEO as well as the CIO (chief information officer) were found liable in a wrongful death lawsuit. In your initial post, discuss why the court ruled that the CIO was just as guilty as the CEO. Do you agree with the court’s decision? Be sure to support your position. In your follow-up posts to peers, be sure to support your opinion if you find yourself disagreeing with their assessment. in 150 words

Answer 1

This is a case of medical negligence. I agree with the courts decision because in this case both the CEO and CIO is involved in respect to their job responsibility. CEO is responsible because he haven't had a good emergency management system where patient get effective patient care and CIO is at fault because if the emergency had an information system ,then the healthcare workers must have been intimated simultaneously along with the report of Mrs. Vance and this would have helped her to get the urgent management of her disease condition.